Hard work pays off for Alison

Eight-year-old Alison Winstanley speaks with confidence and clarity about a year of achievements - winning a poetry reading contest, completing a triathlon and taking part in a jazz show.

Significant for any child, remarkable considering Alison is so profoundly deaf she could not hear a jet engine roaring if it was beside her.

But she speaks as well, if not better, than any of her peers, thanks to cochlear hearing implants.

The Auckland student was diagnosed at 14 months as being deaf, then spent the next three years attending The Hearing House.

While the implants allow her to hear sound, she needed to learn how to interpret that into language.

"I could hear but I couldn't speak. I came here and they taught me how to speak," she explains.

The Hearing House spends around $1.2 million a year helping children like Alison. The government funds a quarter of that, it relies on donations for the rest.

It is now about to benefit from a new tax break scheme to encourage charitable donations.

From this month employees can receive immediate tax breaks if they donate money direct from their pay packet to charities, provided their employers have joined the scheme.

Called Payroll Giving, for every dollar donated automatically from pay packets to approved charities, workers receive a third back immediately rather than requiring them to collect receipts and submit claims at the end of the tax year.

Eric Hertz, chief executive of phone company 2degreesmobile, has joined the scheme and has chosen to donate to The Hearing House.

"Both my grandfather and father are profoundly deaf, so I wanted to support this charity," he says.

He has 260 staff and will be encouraging them to take part.

He expects up to 15 percent will want to donate.

"These are tough times, but even $1 a week can make a difference," he says.

Last November 170,000 employers were sent information packs on the scheme. An IRD spokesperson says it is too early to tell how many have signed on.

Announcing the scheme last year, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector Tariana Turia said: "The more we can give by steady, committed donations to organisations, the more they have financial certainty to support our communities."

In 2007, more than 1.2 million people made regular donations, almost 800,000 were in paid employment.

More than 24,000 charities are registered with the Charities Commission.

"The diversity of the sector means that when you are looking for a charity to support, there is no shortage of organisations to choose from," says Charities Commission chief executive Trevor Garrett.

- © Fairfax NZ News